Dear Aunt Petunia- Alternate Ending
by GuidingHand
Summary: The title says it all! This is the alternate ending only. Read Dear Aunt Petunia first.


In a time past, Petunia and Lily had been best friends. Petunia read bedtime stories to her little sister and comforted Lily when she had bad dreams. They had played dress up and house, and had fake tea parties with their dollies. Then that Snape boy had come along and stolen her friend. She had been jealous of their friendship and then of their abilities. She wanted her sister back and she had wanted to go off with her to wondrous places and do wondrous things. For years she had let her rage at being unworthy consume her, but eventually she won the battle with jealousy. She suppressed those desires by extinguishing the existence of those things from her mind. Petunia pretended that her sister and magic didn't exist.

Then she'd found a baby on her doorstep. She wasn't going to make the same mistakes again. She wasn't going to become attached and then watch the one she had become attached to leave her. And attached or not, she wasn't going to allow another of her family members to be dragged off into that barbaric world that had stolen her sister and eventually murdered her.

So she had distanced herself from Harry, not allowing him to see her as someone that cared for him and not allowing herself to care. But these letters were changing her, bit by bit. At first she read them only for the gossip she could spread, but the stories were too absurd for her friends to believe, so she had stopped telling them about what was written. She couldn't bring herself to stop reading them though. Each letter brought an unfamiliar squeezing in her chest and the pressure grew steadily with each missive, finally, this last letter had brought her to her cracking point.

She was angry on behalf of the child she had begrudgingly raised. Steamed beyond reason considering her own treatment of him. But nothing she had ever done had risked his life! Made him miserable, yes. Actively attempt to kill him or get him killed, no.

He would not be returning to that school. The Boy would be better off doing chores and living in a cupboard than being attacked by wild animals and murderers.

Petunia sat and composed her own letter:

_Dear Law Enforcement,_

_Here are a copy of the letters I received from my nephew whilst he was in the "care" of Hogwarts. I do believe he edited the letters to make them comprehensible by normal people. If you need the freak details I am sure he can give them to you. Due to the unsafe conditions (and absurd courses) in your educational system, I am officially withdrawing Harry James Potter from Hogwarts, in my capacity as his legal guardian. I send this withdraw to you rather than the school as I do not regard the adults in that building to be competent enough to understand or respect my legally ending his education in the magical world. As such, I am requesting legal paper work from you baring anyone of Hogwarts employee from contacting my family or Harry in any form._

_Sincerely,_

_Petunia Evans Dursley_

Harry lived out a perfectly ordinary life, attending Stonewall High and doing chores for his relatives. Now and then he'd send Hedwig to Gringots to retrieve gold that he had converted into pounds, so he could buy clothes that fit, and glasses with the correct prescription. He kept enough spending money about that he could go to the occasional movie or to a football game. He had kept in contact with Hermione and Ron for awhile via letters, but the frequency tapered off and at some point had ended. Without Dudley about most of the year and what with his parents funds to pay for clothes and outings he was no longer the reject he had been in elementary school. He made new friends, including a trail of girlfriends. He completed his A Levels and moved on to Uni.

On his 17 birthday he dug out his old textbooks from Hogwarts and began practicing spells. Using his wand gave him a comforting embrace and its use became addictive, both due to its convenience and due to the pure connection he had with his wand and magic. But he was muggle raised and had lived a muggle life and it was in the muggle world that he would live out his days.

Little did he know that those days would go on and on forever more as he and his enemy never were to meet in a final battle. Voldemort never regained his body. His souls lived on in their dreary lives, captured forever in horcruxes. Harry waited for age to take him, but age didn't come. By the time it occurred to him to check with the magical world regarding this, all who could have explained to him about Horcruxes or that Voldemort and Tom Riddle were one in the same, had long since found their graves.

Centuries passed, and jealousy once again sook him out. Jealousy at those who did not have to survive the death of all of their companions. Jealousy at the Flamels for having had each other and having had the option to eventually "sleep". Jealousy at those who still had places in the world they had yet to explore. But jealousy and rage can only consume you for so long and he once again won the battle...this time with the help of technology. Harry stood aboard the Enterprise D as it jettisoned out into space. There was no longer a need to be bored. He had a whole universe to explore!

The End.


End file.
